Juventus this season is a paradox. The black and white team is not shining, but it is growing. Draws are more than wins. Statistics seem to penalize him, but first place is only four points away.
The figures show that the start with Andrea Pirlo on the bench is the second worst of the last decade, of this winning cycle that brought nine consecutive championship titles and is still in progress.
After seven games, the whites have accumulated only 13 points, as a result of 3 wins (one of them taken at the table with Napoli) and 4 draws. Worse had started Massimiliano Allegri in the 2015-16 season. At the time (Allegri’s second season), at this point in the league Juventus were a team in complete crisis: 12th in the standings with just 8 points (2 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses).
In other years, from 2011-12 until today, the “Old Lady” have done more and better. Pirlo’s Juve had an acceptable start, with ups and downs, missed opportunities and wasted points (against Crotone, Verona and Lazio).
The comparison with Juve of Sarri shows that today they are 6 points less than last year (they had 19). It suffered an identical number of goals (6), but scored more (15). The average points per game this season is 1.86 versus 2.71 a year ago.
The comparison with Allegri’s first year Juventus (2014-15) shows practically the same gap: six points less, one more goal scored (15 against 14) and one more conceded (6 against 5).
The positive is the fact that the numbers are the same as that of Juve of the first season of Conte. Similarities are not just about ranking. Even then the number of points was 13 and a new technical project had just been launched and the assurances were gradually acquired, until the major objective was reached, which was probably not expected so quickly.
Compared to the 2011-12 season, Juventus is stronger and more experienced today, after nine very successful years, it has a team of the highest quality and above all it can rely on Cristiano Ronaldo. Of course it was reasonable to have higher expectations in terms of results.
